parent. O be mindful of their souls! My plan has been, when Ann has done wrong, to take her alone, and try to convince her of her fault. I have seen her weep, and acknowledge her fault with contrition. I have then prayed with her: suiting my expressions to her understanding. In this work God has blessed my own soul." I observed, that they were very young. She proceeded, "When they are three years of age, it is not too soon to talk to them about Jesus; do begin early; pray with, as well as for them; be as much with them as your engagements will permit; never allow them in any thing which may feed their pride; be moderate in applauding them; do not indulge them in flippant dress: the restraint will not be deemed a hardship if you keep their affection, and inform them that from religious motives you cannot allow it: it will give them pleasure to please you." On its being noticed with surprise, that she had so greatly overcome her native diffidence, she remarked, “ I find no difficulty in talking to any person about Jesus; I never reason about who the person is; but am sometimes at a loss for words to convey my meaning." She felt particular solicitude on behalf of her mother and brother, for whom she had an ardent affection, and her exhortations were consequently more frequent and pointed to them than others. To me she said, "You know the way; walk in it. Always do your duty, without reasoning about consequences; leave them to God. We shall not long be separated; the Lord will save me; nothing but grace could give me the victory over the love of life, and fear of death, which I now enjoy."

Her tranquillity was sometimes disturbed for a short time, by a fear that her patience would fail. The excessive pain under which she laboured, tried all her grace; and the exercise of grace being mistaken for the want of it, occasioned severe pain of mind. Several times she noticed to Mrs. Driffield, (who affectionately spent three weeks with her, and witnessed the closing scene,) "I am afraid I have been impatient." Having a severe conflict one day on this subject, the Lord graciously applied those words to her mind, which were a source of consolation to her to the last. I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand." On Sunday evening, Nov. 6th, she breathed her last in the full exercise of Christian faith and hope.

The disposition of Mrs. Haswell was meek, but firm; diffident, but inquiring; affectionate, but discriminating. She was cautious in forming her opinions of persons and subjects, and tenacious in adhering to them; slow in forming intimacies, but steady in maintaining them; observant of the conduct of others, but ever burying their failings. No one had more the government of the tongue; and those connected with her had no occasion to fear being involved in broils through an incautious disclosure of secrets on her part. She was silent to a fault,

and in her last affliction she lamented the many opportunities she had lost, of bearing a testimony for Christ. But prior to this, when she has been urged to shake off her reserve, she usually replied, "I am seldom condemned for not speaking; and therefore leave conversation to those who can use a multitude of words, and not sin."

In all the domestic relations her character was amiable; exemplifying every thing desirable in a child, a wife, and a mother. In her long and painful affiction, as well as in death, she testified the truth of God's promises, and the all-sufficiency of His grace.

DIVINITY.

BROTHERLY LOVE:

A SERMON:

BY THE REV. RICHARD TREFFRY.

HEBREWS xiii. 1.

"Let brotherly love continue."

"THE Lord our God is one Lord." The essential unity of God, and the consummate harmony of his attributes, are no less displayed in the works of his power, than revealed by the word of his grace. When creation sprang fresh from its Maker's hands, and shone in all the refulgence of its pristine glory, unity and harmony every where prevailed. By mutual attraction the heavenly bodies were preserved in their orbits. Earthly substances, though diversely formed in their elemental parts, maintained their unity by cohesion. The animal creation lived in all the harmony of love; and "the morning stars sang together, and the sons of God shouted for joy," in surveying the vast achievements of infinite power and goodness. But when sin entered into the world, discord succeeded to harmony, and strife and division to union: then "heaven gave signs of wrath;" the war of elements commenced; the brutal tribes, having mysteriously forfeited their native harmlessness, ferociously preyed upon each other. Man, especially, groaned under the horrid effects of the original transgression; having alienated himself from the life of God, he became a slave to the vilest lusts, and the most malignant dispositions; and in proportion as his posterity multiplied, and the world teemed with population, hatred, variance, disunion, and division, and all the bad passions entailed by sin upon the human family, held their desolating and unmolested reign; so that the earth was filled with violence; and man became to man, "the sorest, surest foe." But upon this disordered world, upon these children of wrath, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another, God set his love; and

in the fulness of time he sent forth his Son, made of a woman; who was manifested in the flesh to destroy the works of the devil. The devil's work was division, but Christ's work was union; for having made peace by the blood of his cross, and established a ministry of reconciliation, his ambassadors preached " peace to them that were afar off, and to them that were nigh; so that through Him, both Jews and Gentiles had access by one Spirit unto the Father." Men, being thus reconciled unto God, became friends to each other; they whom God had forgiven, forgave one another; and being of one heart and one soul they loved as brethren, and cultivated fervent charity among themselves: but as they were yet in the world, a world hostile to their peace, where they were "made as the filth of the earth, and the offscouring of all things,"-where they had to maintain an incessant conflict with the most formidable foes, and where they were in danger of casting away their confidence, relinquishing the struggle, and returning again to the world; the Apostles who laboured among them, and were over them in the Lord, deemed it their duty to reprove, rebuke, or admonish them, as their circumstances required. The subject brought before us by the text is "brotherly love." A subject not obscurely hinted at in the New Testament,-not left to the ingenuity of deduction,-nor assuming a merely speculative aspect; but a subject broadly and repeatedly stated, and imperatively enjoined, in language which the most illiterate may understand; and a subject which, if carried forward, and realized in all its practical results, would make the world's waste wilderness like Eden, and the desert like the garden of the Lord. In endeavouring therefore to profit by the Apostolic admonition in the text, we will consider the nature of brotherly love,the indispensable obligations we are under to maintain it,—and the means necessary to promote so desirable an end.

I. What is the nature of brotherly love?

In answer to this question, we say, It is that spiritual affection which Christians by virtue of their regeneration reciprocally exercise; and under the influence of which, every act of kindness towards each other is cultivated. But it will be necessary to be a little more particular.

1. Brotherly love is divine in its principle. It is not a physical or natural property; it is not essential to your being; it forms no part of your substance. It is not even a gift of Providence: it does not drop "as the gentle rain from heaven," nor visit you as the sunbeam without your solicitation. Nor is it a transient feeling of approbation that steals over your senses in contemplating the moral virtues of the men of whom the world was not worthy. No; the love of God shed abroad in the heart, is the only source whence the streams of Christian charity can possibly flow. Sinners may love saints, but not as saints; not for their saintly qualities; not because God loves them, nor because they see his image in them, and his moral likeness reflected from them: they may

behold in them such personal and mental accomplishments, as to attract their most devoted attention, and win their cordial esteem; but this is not the effect of grace, but of nature, and is carnal complacency rather than brotherly love. To prove that the love of God is the only principle that can generate brotherly love, we refer you to the following texts: "If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us." "If any man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?" "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren." Every one that loveth him that begat, loveth him also that is begotten of him." 66 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments." Brotherly love, therefore, being essentially connected with the love of God, we are justified in saying it is divine in its principle; for the love of God is not merely the gift, but the nature of God where God is loved, there he is possessed and enjoyed; for "he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him."

2. Brotherly love is discriminating in its objects. Christianity, it must be allowed, is a system of universal charity: it prescribes no bounds to our benevolence; it teaches us to look abroad over the whole family of man, and to extend our beneficent regards, and friendly succours, to the utmost limits of our ability. It is hostile to every species of malevolence. Have we enemies? we must love them. Do they curse us? we must bless them. Do they hate us? we must do them good. Do they despitefully use and persecute, us? we must pray for them. Do they hunger? we must feed them. Do they thirst? we must give them drink and instead of resisting evil, we must overcome evil with good. But though, as Christians, we are bound to love our fellow-creatures universally; yet we cannot love them equally: they are not all equally worthy nor equally attractive; nor are the obligations we are under to them equally powerful: love therefore possesses a discriminating character; and while it moves us as we have opportunity to do good unto all men, it especially urges us to do good unto the household of faith: to sinners, we are bound by the common ties of humanity; but to saints, by the additional and superior bonds of Christian affection and fraternal regard. That the Apostles distinguished between the hallowed and heaven-born principle of brotherly love, and the more common feeling of good will towards men, must appear from such texts as the following: "Honour all men; love the brotherhood." Add "to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, charity." "We give thanks to God, and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have to all the saints." Nor can it appear strange that brotherly love should be restricted in its objects; "every beast loveth his like;" animals of the

same species uniformly herd together; likeness is the lure of love; sinners love those that love them; and saints love saints with a peculiarity of affection; not because they are cast in the same common mould of humanity, but because they are all made partakers of the divine nature, and are therefore branches of the same heavenly family, members of the same mystical body, all created anew in Christ Jesus, and all sealed by the Holy Spirit of God unto the day of redemption. The love, therefore, which they bear to each other, is a spring of indescribable pleasure and hallowed enjoyment; but the love they have to sinners is blended with feelings of deep disgust, and presentiments of unspeakable horror. With "the saints that are in the earth," said David, and "the excellent, is all my delight." "But horror hath taken hold upon me, because of the wicked that forsake thy law."

3. Brotherly love is attractive in its influence.

This is an essential property of love: it possesses powerful attractions. Brotherly love especially draws kindred souls into the closest union with each other: believers are knit together in love; love is the cement of their society; they have no dominion over each other's faith; compulsion may furnish Catholicism with converts, but in Christ's church brotherly love is the only principle of attraction, and the sole bond of union. Where this prevails, "brethren dwell together in unity;" for them the prayer of Christ is answered: "Holy father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one as we are." The church of Christ is neither physically nor numerically one; for the members are many, and their judgments, constitutional propensities, intellectual attainments, worldly circumstances, modes of faith, and forms of worship, are amazingly diversified; and yet they are all baptized by one Spirit, into one body; and brotherly love, like the vital current in the human frame, circulates through the whole of the members. In the primitive ages of Christianity especially, it formed a bond of union more strict and tender than the ties of consanguinity; and with the appellation of brethren, they associated all the sentiments of endearment which that relation implied. "To see men of the most contrary character and habits, the learned and the rude, the most polished and the most uncultivated, the inhabitants of countries alienated from each other by institutions the most repugnant, and by contests the most violent, forgetting their ancient animosity, and blending into one mass, at the command of a person whom they had never seen, and who had ceased to be an inhabitant of this world, was an astonishing spectacle." Hence, whenever a man was called out of the world, and brought under the dominion of Christianity, he felt the attractive power of brotherly love, and his heart was drawn by a sweet constraining influence to unite himself to the church. It is said of Saul, that when he "was come to Jerusalem, he assayed to join himself to the disciples: VOL. VI. Third Series. JANUARY, 1827. C